


falling a little everyday (wouldn't have it any other way)

by JaMills



Category: SPY x FAMILY (Manga)
Genre: Drabble Collection, F/M, Family Feels, Fluff, Gen, Humor, Parent-Child Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-02
Updated: 2021-02-26
Packaged: 2021-03-13 01:27:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 6,258
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29145171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JaMills/pseuds/JaMills
Summary: Just some glimpses into the life of the Forger household, in this and other worlds.(A.K.A I'll dump all my Fluffbruary written works here. There will be AUs, too)
Relationships: Anya Forger & Loid Forger | Twilight & Yor Briar Forger | Thorn Princess, Damian Desmond/Anya Forger, Loid Forger | Twilight/Yor Briar Forger | Thorn Princess
Comments: 66
Kudos: 100





	1. Parenting Time

  
It happened as Anya was munching on a particularly hard peanut. She barely noticed as her teeth bit on a weird angle and she felt a tiny pang of discomfort and then the sensation of something loose. She touched the tooth with her tongue and felt it moving just slightly.

  
Startled, she called for Yor:

  
"Mama, I broke my tooth!" She said running up to her mother who was distractedly watching TV. Loid was somewhere in his room finishing work-related paperwork WISE now deemed fit to dump on him.

"Broke? Does it hurt?" Yor asked worried, but as she expected the said broken incisor, she just smiled relieved. "Honey, it's not broken, you just have a loose baby tooth!"

"Oh." Anya wished she could actually see her tooth now, but she would need a mirror. "I learnt about those at school! They fall on their own and it shows I'm not a baby!"

"Yes!" Yor clapped enthusiastically. "Then when it falls we can give it to _Le Petit Souris_!"

" 'Petty Sorry'...?" She tilted her head in confusion. "Who's that?"

  
"Oh, it's a magical mouse who collects kids' teeth while they're asleep." Yor explained with a giggle. "Then he gives you candy or money in ret-"

"A mouse?!" Anya exclaimed terrified. "But mices are gross!"

"B-But it's a magical mouse!" Yor tried to fix it quickly, blushing at the embarrassment of turning that innocent story in a childhood trauma.

"I'm not giving my tooth to some rat!" Anya declared running away to her bedroom as her poor mother hid her face in shame. Of course, if it worked with Yuri it didn't mean it would work with Anya.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact: In Switzerland and France, instead of the Tooth Fairy, they have a Tooth Rat! Decided to play with this bit of cultural reference since Endo just says "White European Country" about worldbuilding ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯


	2. Birthday

Happy Birthday. Twilight always had a problem with those two words together. 

Why did people always say "Happy Birthday"? It's just another day. You don't need to be happy in a specific day since you're getting older with every passing second. It's just one day. And in all those years, there were few he could call really "happy" birthdays.

A memory. He's small, dirty, skin and bones with a fluff of pale blond hair on the top of his head. He left the streets but the streets didn't leave him. The streets were made of fear, suspicion and distrust. It's been four days and he doesn't know what's the catch with this foster home. Why are they being so gentle? Why are they bothering to allow them to take seconds during lunch when there are a dozen of hungry kids to feed? He wouldn't let loose. Not soon.

A month passes and he still barely spoke a word in that house. That loud, stuffy but still warm and comfortable house. He didn't starve nowadays. It was good.

At some point, his foster mother asks him when is his birthday. This would be way more difficult than learning his name, because not even he himself truly remembered. He remembered there was cake and gifts when it was cold outside, not enough to have snow. But nowadays everyday felt cold as hell when you have to share thin blankets. So, he didn't know.

He simply shook his head and the woman smiled tenderly. As always, his foster mother wouldn't press him on it. He liked that about her.

On the following day, his breakfast was different from the other kids'. He had the usual sweet porridge plus a muffin with a single candle stuck on it. It felt sad and pathetic when compared to all the cakes he had when his parents were alive. He still cried in gratitude, as his tears only stopped for the shock of receiving a pair of brand new shoes from his foster father. Oh, right, he didn't like to be called a father. He was just their teacher. A cold in the front, warm-hearted teacher that convinced him the shoes weren't just for special occasions and he should use them daily as his old ones were too torn. As he was growing too old for teddy bears, he now slept hugging his new shoes.

\- - -

The next happy birthday was actually an odd one. He wasn't truly happy there, he was forced to be. Because there was no way someone can give a damn about birthdays during a life-risking mission in a country whose language you barely speak two words. It also didn't help it was his first mission as a WISE agent.

Twilight was tense, secretly frightened and wanted to get to the bad guys' headquarters as soon as possible and make it a day. Instead, he was pushed into a cheap restaurant of a foreign chain as his new mentor, but old acquaintance, grinned like an idiot across him.

"Come on, kiddo, pick something out of the menu for you. I assure you the burgers are tasty!"

"We have work to do, I can eat later." He mumbled annoyedly as he stared down at his forced options. No wonder his teacher never liked Midnight. The guy was unnecessarily emotional for useless things.

"I know it's your birthday, Twilight. It's important to not work once in a while and remember who you really are." He said with the same smile, but his eyes held a faraway a glance that really denounced how old he was, how much he had seen of this world. "Also, the longer you take the more I'm prone to ask for their Double Party Combo with Ice-Cream Cake and Family Sized Fries. I'll also ask them to sing happy birthday to you.

"Oh, my God, _don't."_ He cursed lowly and pointed the vegetarian option before Midnight embarrassed him even further. 

In the end, he still made the whole restaurant sing "Happy Birthday" to him. 

\- - - 

Loid Forger arrived tired at home just to be welcomed to a shot of confetti on his face. It lowkey hurt.

"Gosh, Anya, not so close!" Yor said panicking as Loid wiped the tiny paper from his face.

"Happy Birthday, Papa!" The little girl said energetically while ignoring her mother's chastising and her father's confused stare. "Congrats on being old!"

_Huh... Thanks?._ He really didn't know what to say, as he was still trying to process what was going on. Loid wasn't even sure on how they managed to find out about his birthday.

There were balloons all around their apartment, plus ribbons and other party ornaments he couldn't identify. On their dinner table, a slightly deformed birthday cake with white icing and strawberries. The letters on top said "Happy Birthday, Loid."

"Mama made the cake with me!" Anya kept going nonstop, visibly looking more excited than her still atonished father. "And she didn't burn it! I licked the spoon and it tasted good!"

"...That's nice." He finally managed to say taking out his hat and coat. "You didn't need to have all this work for me, though."

"Of course, we needed!" It was Yor's time to speak up, so even with her flushed cheeks she still said confidently. "You're always working hard for the sake of our family, Loid. You're an wonderful father and admirable husband. The least we could do is throw a party for you."

Loid Forger, Twilight, blinked in a couple of seconds of stupor. It was interesting how they always managed to surprise him with the most mundane things. An impromptu dinner, handmade matching clothes, a birthday party. It made him proud of his wife and daughter. 

"I see." He said picking Anya up and walking over to Yor to place a chaste kiss on her cheek. "Thank you. I truly appreciate it."

After so long, it was nice to actually have a happy birthday.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Midnight is an OC from our server Operation Stryx and the others briefly mentioned are mine.  
> See you next time!! ~~


	3. Cuddles

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Keep in mind!: This is an AU in which Yor is a killing bot resettled to also be a housewife and Loid a android/cyborg posing as an human for his mission in Ostania, with Anya being their 5 y.o tech genius. Forget worldbuilding and just keep up with me on it, please.
> 
> Have a good read!!

  
There were things Twilight would never understand about humans. Or rather, about Anya, the closest human he had to be in contact daily.

  
Even if they had something easily and in a practical way, they'd still take a more complicated route for reasons unclear. Franky would say it was more "fun". Twilight's data never understood the fun in most of his jokes, actually.

  
For Anya, though, he didn't think it was a choice made by "fun", but rather survival. After all, the heat coming from a robotic machinery was indeed more fulfilling against the winter night than a blanket and a cup of hot cocoa.

  
She wouldn't tire herself with these pros and cons, though. All her reasons were summarized in just one sentence:

  
"Mama is comfy!" She said with a joyful grin as she scooted closer to Yor and settled on her lap with a thin sheet for purely aesthetic reasons. Yor's lips curved up in a small smile as she held Anya in her arms.

Since Yor was recognized as a droid, she didn't have to conceal the heat from her circuits to appear more human. Actually, she seemed to have trouble with it as she was an older model. But it seemed that tiny defect was all Anya needed to keep herself warm and feel safe as a bonus.

As his role demanded, Loid Forger smiled at the scene, sitting on the opposite couch to watch an animated movie on the TV with his family. That was a strange word, but he was slowly getting acclimated with that.

He barely had time to settle on his position before Yor spoke up:

"Loid, you can sit us and also share my body's heat." Her voice had the usual lack of humor as she was still getting acquainted with human emotions, but if Loid had to guess, there was a tinge of expectancy on her tone. "I learnt this is a common social manifestation of affinity between family members. It'd be useful to make our actings more believable."

  
Loid took half a second to finish all the calculations on the consequences of those acts. He saw no practical benefit of the heat sharing, even more when he himself couldn't feel cold at all. But Yor also thought he was human, so she thought this would keep him warm. She was also right on try to make their relationship more ressembling of those of a husband and wife.

  
So, for all of those reasons, he accepted with a calculated smile.

  
"Thank you, Yor." He said as he stood up and walked over to their couch.

As humans would usually say, to sit beside Yor was "awkward". First, he had to avoid step on Bond's tail as he was right by their foot as an extra obstacle. Then, he took a milisecond (which was a lot) to figure out where his arm should go, just to end across Yor's shoulder. She was indeed very warm, it made sense for Anya to enjoy that. At some point, her head was rested against his shoulder and they kept watching the whole movie life that.

In his data, he'd later categorize that social manifestation as "cuddling".

It felt... pleasant. As if he had just received an update that made reconnaissance and file storage easier and less tiring. He felt as he belonged there, right beside Yor and Anya, with their dog, watching TV.

Anya was asleep before the movie ended, but they still watched it till the end. As the credits rolled and the state channel announced the late night options, they agreed to call it a day.

"Should I take Anya to the bedroom?" Yor asked turning to face him. But as they were too close, it caught him by surprise.

Twilight shouldn't be surprised. He was built to be always attentive and unaffected before an enemy. 

So, why a mere domestic droid was making all his internal alarms go blaring as if she was the most dangerous being in the world?

He couldn't explain, maybe it was a glitch caused by overheating. The thing is he spent far too long staring down at those ruby eyes and probably made himself look like an idiot.

  
"Ah." It was the best his vocal devices could come up with at first. "Yes. Thanks. I mean, please. No. Huh... Sorry. I meant to thank you... For sharing your body heat."

She nodded and stood up with Anya on her arms. Not too late, though, she stopped abruptly and muttered:

"You enjoyed my body's heat... You enjoyed _my body..."_

Loid blinked unconcerned, not really getting at first what she meant with that.

What told him something was wrong was Anya wriggling and talking in her sleep.

  
"Hm." The little girl mumbled with still closed eyes. "Too hot..."

  
That and an insistent beep accompained by a red light blinking on Yor's earlobe.

  
" _Alert: Overheating system. Please, proceed to cool down the hard drive. Alert: Overheating system. Please, proceed to cool down the hard drive. Alert_ -"

The robotic voice came from Yor, even if it didn't sound like her talking at all. Loid understood this as his cue to take the lead and take Anya, as Yor seemed to be going through some problems. 

"Are you alright?" 

  
He asked for the mere sake of politeness, because it was obvious Yor wasn't alright, as her sylicone-covered cheeks were shining in red, her eyes were unfocused and there was even a faint trace of steam coming out of her open lips. Loid's sensors even detected the high temperature as potentially dangerous for human organisms.

"I am fine." She answered almost in one breath. "Have a good night, Loid." She left for her room without further additions.

Even if it had turned out that social manifestation was quite problematic, Loid hoped they would engage in "cuddling" again.  



	4. Drunken Confessions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yep, I skipped day 4, but fortunately we are back on tracks!! Hope you guys enjoy it <3

"She doesn't love me."

  
Yor was caught by total surprise by that slurred sentence. Had she not been paying proper attention (which is expected considering she was carrying an adult man's weight on her back, minding her steps on the dark and still paying attention to the streets so they could hail a taxi to go home. The party was very fun for Loid, apparently.)

"Hm?" She didn't make a big deal of it at first, betting it on just a sleepy man's drunk mumblings. But Loid still answered.

"She doesn't love me." His voice was hoarse and slightly melancholic as he said that. His eyes were also closed as his head rested against Yor's shoulder. "I'm sure of it..."

"...Who doesn't love you?" Yor felt her mouth dry at that question. Was Loid referring to herself? A past love? Or worse, a current affair she didn't know about? It made her unrested, even coming from a man that was down with just a couple shots of liquor. Those eastern beverages sure were strong, huh.

  
"Anya." He answered in a pained voice.

"Anya?!" Yor asked unbelievable. "No way, Loid that's...!"

  
"I don't blame her..." He kept going, not realizing this whole talk was very, very risky for his mission. "I'm so lacking for a parent..."

Yor shook her head with a sigh. Her husband was surely too drunk to say anything reasonable. "Loid, that's nonsense..."

  
"Anya's adopted." He blurted out of nothing. Yor froze. "She's right for feeling uncomfortable. I'm the stranger that showed up one day from nowhere and demanded to be her father."

That sounded too specific for a drunk rumbling. As they now reached a busier part of the street, it was safe for Yor to stop walking and sit the both of them on a bench until a taxi cab showed up. But there were things she needed to know and only an alcohol induced trance could answer.

"Anya is adopted?" She asked not really believing her ears. "She's not your daughter by blood?"

"She was so small when I first saw her..." He kept talking without really minding what she was saying. "So fragile, so different from those other kids at the orphanage. She was chosen without thinking twice..."

  
"...Why did you never tell me that?" Yor felt hurt by finding out about that just now. It felt important to know. Was it when Anya was a baby? A toddler? It must have been when his first wife was still alive, so it really wasn't that long since Anya really become part of a family. She wished she knew.

  
"I think it'd make it too real." He mumbled with an arm against his eyes to block the faint illumination of the street. "To admit she's not my real child... It kinda hurt. Because I keep thinking if I was really the best for her. I keep wondering there's a family out there that's more fitting for her and I'm just keeping her away from this happiness. I think... I think..."

Yor held his face and made his blurry blue eyes stare directly at her. She didn't even have the second thought of passerbys watching and whispering to such an act of depravity. What mattered now was Loid to get a hold of himself.

"Stop this." She said firmly. "None of this is right, it's a complete lie. Anya loves you, Loid. You love her, I love her. This is enough. _We_ are the best for her. It doesn't matter if she's not your biological daughter, it matters that _you_ chose her before anyone. She's your child. Anya, is, your, child."

Loid blinked, completely idiotical to all of that. At least he wasn't crying. This could become twice as embarrassing tomorrow.

"...I want to believe that." He whispered with eyes unfocused. "I want to believe I'm doing the best for her."

"You are." Yor agreed vehemently. "You're the absolute best father for her. And I'm sure she wouldn't trade you for anyone else."

"Thanks." He sniffed. It was kinda chilly at night, he could catch a cold. "I love her. I love you."

Yor smiled sadly. Now this was definitely part of the drunk rumbling and shouldn't be taken seriously.

"I'm sure you do." She spotted a cab coming two squares away. "Our car is almost here. Come on, we need go home now."


	5. Trust

"Anya." Loid's voice was serious and firm as he said that, but he was equally tense. "It's okay. You can do this."

  
"Papa, I'm scared." Anya said on the breach of tears as she looked down in absolute fear. "They will bite me...!"

"They're not doing anything if you be quiet and fast." He instructed trying to believe on his words as well. "Now listen to me. You have to drop the peanuts."

  
"No!" The girl exclaimed in horror, the movement of holding the package onto her chest alerting the enemies who made noises and walked around in expectancy. "These are _my_ peanuts!"

"We can get more later, Anya, this is serious." The man said shaking his head. "Don't you trust me?"

"I do..." She said looking melancholically from her peanuts to the beasts on the ground.

"Then listen to me. Everything will be fine." Loid reassured her. "Now, you'll do what I say. On the count of three, you throw away the peanuts as far as you can and I'll come to catch you. Got it?"

She nodded, taking a deep breath of courage and doing her best to ignore the murderous sayings of the monsters going in her head.

  
_Food. Attack. Attack for food. Attack. Attack. War. Food_.

  
"One." Loid looked from the animals to Anya. They still looked very focuses on the peanuts package.

  
"Two." If this was an average mission for a spy, Anya could definitely do it. Even if it was far more scary than any Spy Wars episode she ever watched.

"Three. Go!" 

  
Anya threw away the little box with as much strength she could, managing a good six feet of distance between the peanuts and the tree she was on top. The cursed geese followed it like flies, their clumsy but still fast feet assaulting the abandoned peanuts in the blink of an eye. The honks would scare Anya for life just as they did with Loid when he was a child, apparently.

  
As the geese were far enough, Loid was quick to approach the tree and Anya jumped right onto his arms, so they could run away for safety before the birds decided it was time for war again.

  
Yor, who was watching it from a certain distance, was doing her best to not burst out laughing.

"Are you guys done with playing with the geese?" She asked with an amused smile. "I'm actually surprised you're afraid as well, Loid."

"They wanted to kill me!" Anya declared still holding on Loid's neck for dear life. "They took my peanuts!"

"Geese are actually very violent animals, Yor. You should take them more seriously." Loid complained even if his cheeks were growing red for being made fun of.

"I do take them seriously, I grew up around them! It's just my first time seeing someone so scared." She giggled behind her hand. "Well, it can't be helped I'm the only country bumpkin in the family. I think I'm the only one to enjoy this kind of trip."

  
"The farm is beautiful, Yor. It's those things that should be kept away." Loid mumbled stepping into the cottage, still not letting go of his daughter. "I'll go make lunch."

As they were on a distance Yor deemed safe from hearing, she laughed out loud. Loid still heard it and would blush at her sight for the rest of the weekend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The backstory for this is the Forgers visiting Yor's old childhood home, which I headcanon as being in the countryside. I have no experience with geese.
> 
> Hope you liked it!~~


	6. Petnames

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Keep on mind! This chapter is an AU in which Loid is the esper adopted by spy Anya and assassin/shopkeeper Damian. I hope one day write more for this universe, it's very fun.
> 
> Hope you like it!!~~

Loid Desmond knew his parents' relationship was different from other Papas and Mamas out there.

  
No matter how much they wanted to deny, for his sake, that they didn't completely hate each other, they sort of did. But they also did not. They were weird.

It just made things all more confusing when they used petnames.

Loid learnt that petnames weren't necessarily a name for pets, like Max and Bond. But they were cute (?) ways of calling a person you love a lot. And since people needed to believe they loved each other, they had the most sugarcoated endearments possible to make their lie pass unscathed.

His father Damian was especially easy to read, because the more exaggerated his petname to Anya was, the more clearer it was that he was actually pissed.

"Honey" he would call his mother when Anya purposely misplaced his books in the shelf and there was a maid watching.

  
"My sweetheart" was for when Anya arrived late at a social gathering they had been planning for weeks and to top it all, she just offended the prime minister's secret mistress and ruined one of Damian's deals.

  
"My dear spring redberry" was said when his eyes were sreaming dead murder and Anya just lowly called him an idiot while Loid brought the Sherwood girl to a playdate.

  
So, considering his father was the most knowledgeable in etiquette and social norms, this pattern of pet names surely was the right to be replicated in Loid's daily life. He would surely do it and help Mama with her mission in Operation Stryx!

He devised that foolproof plan all morning during breakfast and he'd now put it in practice during lunchbreak at Eden.

Loid stood up from his seat, leaving his own sandwich and Sylvia at his side watching him with mildly confused eyes as he walked over to his target's table.

Camille whispered to Yor something as she noticed Loid approaching, but the dark-haired girl just actually paid attention to him when Loid proclaimed in a loud and clear voice:

"Miss Briar!" He stuffed his chest in pride at how creative and profound his next words would be. "You're a very admirable pumpkin!"

  
Yor, the other girls in the table and a whole bunch of other students in the hall watched him in confusion. Yor, herself, just blinked atonished.

"...Huh?" Was all she could say.

  
"A squishable tomato, a sweet apple dumpling, a lovable petite zucchini!" He said serious, carefully watching her for any reaction.

Yor couldn't understand anything he said, but the words "lovable" and "sweet" sort of made a impression on her anr she couldn't help but blush uncontrollably.

  
"W-What..?"

  
Loid blinked, not getting why she was red out of nowhere. Was that bad? Papa always blushed around Mama so he assumed it was out of irritation. Was Yor angry? But his plan was so good!

As he panicked thinking up something to salvage the situation, a hand caught his shoulder and dragged him away from that mess. Sylvia expressionless mumbled on their way back to their lunch:

"Stop embarrassing yourself like this." She pushed him onto his seat and went back to her own seat to munch on her cookies. "Now eat your damn sandwich."

As Loid once again failed on his mission to get on Yor Briar's good side, he sighed and actually finished eating.


	7. Cooking

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Keep in mind! This is part of my old but gold Snow White AU, in which Anya is Snow White, Yor is the Queen and Loid is a very tired King but loving father.  
> Hope you like it!!~

The girl peeked into the room without actually crossing the threshold. Even if this was the darkest chamber in the castle, she could still see what was going on due the faint lamps on the walls and the colorful spells being done in the cauldron, painting the grim dungeon with green, blue and sometimes pink. The smell of something burning could be also felt.

  
The witch was working once again.

  
The little princess pouted as she stood on her tiptoes to try to get a glimpse of the floating book being used this time. She couldn't see the witch's face right now, but she bet she looked deeply focused on her job, making another new medicine foe their people or poison to be used against their enemies. The young princess really hoped it was poison. The smell was too yucky for medicine and he hated yucky medicine.

  
But then, an ingredient came floating into the cauldron and the girl shivered. An apple. A red, bright and inconspicuous apple. Then came a pot with a dark powder that by the smell she recognized as cinnamon. Then sugar.

_Not again._

Anya's face was livid and not even her hungry tummy would make her stay to actually eat that. 

She turned away ready to run through the hallway and look for proper food until she run into something (or rather, someone) far taller thhan her. She looked up to find none less than her father, king Loid Forger, watching her as if he was the one with mind reading skills in the household.

"Where are you going?" He asked already guessing her plans.

  
"...I'm hungry." She confessed with puffed cheeks, also knowing where this was going.

"Mama is making you a pie. Why don't you wait for it to be ready?"

Loid might as well have suggested her to prick her finger into a cursed spindle. Actually, the fate of Briar Rose wasn't such a bad idea since when you sleep you don't have to _taste_ anything.

"But Mama's pie is... scary." Anya looked down in shame. She also didn't want to diss her Mama's cooking so bad, but it was the only word she could come up with when one of the better culinary attempts of Queen Yor turned Loid into a carrot. An human-sized carrot. Anya would never eat those again.

"It won't be as bad if we help her this time, right?" He said picking her up with a small smile. No way Anya would repeat her scheme with the dwarfs now that he was home to intervene. "Come on, I'm very hungry as well."


	8. Comfort

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Keep in mind! This is part of my old as hell Baby Anya AU, in which Twilight rescues her from the lab and ends up taking care of her during Operation Stryx.  
> Hope you like it!~~

Agent Twilight is currently on the most difficult mission in his life. Not because of the risk of a nuclear bombing, an assassination of a world leader or the development of a new biological weapon.

  
It was mostly because he needed to guess what a child's crying meant.

On the first two weeks, taking care of Anya was hell. He would worse off if he had zero experience taking care of children, but he did grew up in a foster home with babies at aome point. So, changing diapers and preparing feeding bottles wasn't the trickiest job. The problem was to know which cry was at this point.

  
She'd cry just after being fed and it'd take him half a full hour of headache to realise she actually wanted a second bottle. She'd cry three minutes after being put to sleep because apparently she wasn't really sleeping and not seeing Twilight on the vicinity equals danger and tears. There was also the time she cried when they were going out because a car honked out of nowhere near them and she was scared. Life with Anya was an unending and unpredictable list of reasons to cry. So it was his job to comfort her.

Twilight wanted to believe that it was Anya who needed him more than the other way. His work would be infinitely easier if didn't had to take care of a child daily. He didn't need Anya.

Still, there were moments it just wasn't like that.

  
That day, Twilight was beat up more than usual. He was tired and going against seven men at once wasn't a good idea even if he was completely fine. But he needed to finish that quickly so the most hurtful way needed to do. Fortunately, he didn't break any bones.

Twilight, now Loid Forger, had half a mind to clean the blood of his face before picking Anya up at the daycare. Those people were too attentive to the parents' appearance and any strange thing could be a reason to call on Child Protection Services, or worse, the SSS; so he has always to look pristine when retrieving his fake daughter. Maybe he should consider hiring a babysitter to stay at home with Anya. Convincing a single person that he was a respectable citizen was easier than a whole school's staff.

He went with the Trabant today, because his body was too wrecked to carry a child's weight plus their bag around town. He hoped there was formula at home, because he wasn't in the mood to go shop for groceries right now. He should really consider a babysitter slash housemaid at some point.

Anya slept through the whole ride home and Loid sighed at the prospect of her taking too long to sleep at night. He didn't know what was it with Anya and cars that made her pass out as soon as he turned a corner. At least one of them didn't think the Trabant was pure garbage, it seems.

  
Anya was awake again by the time he opened the door to their apartment. She was fussy in his arms so he let her play on the carpet and she seemed to be content with that, even more when her toys were already there. It wasn't time for dinner yet, so Loid allowed himself to relax and take care of his wounds.

He didn't take long on the hot shower, as he feared Anya would make a mess if he was away for too long. That was always the case in his experience. How someone so small could ruin a perfectly good couch with tomato soup, that wasn't even on her reach to begin with, would always amaze him in the most negative way.

  
He left the bathroom only in his sweatpants, a first-aid kit in one hand and a spare t-shirt in the other. By now, it was a routine to patch himself up while watching Anya. Again, he didn't trust her to be left alone for long.

Loid found her right in front of TV, patting the screen with her chubby hands as if this could make it turn on. She looked at him in expectancy.

  
"Ba!" She said patting the TV again to better convey her message. Loid wasn't in the exact mood for cartoons, but it was this or Anya's crying. He sat down on the couch and turned it on with the remote. The baby seemed satisfied and crawled back to her toys on the carpet. Apparently, she was only interested in the background noise.

The man started on the quiet job of treating his injuries. There was a deep cut on his temple, several bruises on his chest and stomach and minor scratches on his fingers. Not the worse he has been through.

  
As his hands worked by muscle memory disinfecting the wounds and bandaging it up, his eyes would wander to the his small companion. She was growing so fast with the passing days. He wondered when she would actually complete a full year. They didn't have a clue on her birthday, but it may be around three or fours months from now. A full year and they still couldn't send a damn agent to pick her up and make Twilight's job a little easier.

Looking at her babbling up words that only she and her plushies could understand, Twilight feared that, one day, he was the one to refuse to give her back.

Ae he lost himself in thoughts, he didn't notice her crawling up to him and speaking to get his attention. When he actually looked at her, she giggled. Twilight didn't know what her actual superhuman ability was, but he wouldn't be surprised if it was to distract the enemy with a smile. That particular smile made him act like an idiot from time to time.

Anya needed Twilight more than he needed her. He wanted to believe that. He needed to.

Even then, he picked the baby up and held her close to his bandaged chest, she didn't seem against it. Twilight allowed himself a moment of weakness to just close his eyes and deposit a kiss over the pink hair, taking in the sweet and faint smell of lavender shampoo and baby powder. Anya snuggled closer.

It was just one of those moments when she was the one comforting him after a tiresome day.


	9. Re-encounter

For someone nicknamed "Fullmetal Lady", Sylvia wasn't feeling very firm right now. Or strong. Or brave. No, she could only feel her palms sweating in nervousness. It was just half a excuse if she blamed it on the foreign hot weather of the Blue Islands.

  
While she waited for her appointment, the blonde observed the people going with their daily lives by the sidewalk. As she was now on a table outside the café, she had a more vivid experience of the lights, the smells and the voices around her. It was good distraction so she wouldn't check the time anxiously or, worse, stare at the old picture in her pocket for the fifth time in a row.

But maybe... Just one last peek...

  
"Mrs. Sherwood?" The younger female voice with a blugarian accent stopped her and made Sylvia turn her head in a blink of an eye.

  
They both stared at each other for two silent seconds before Sylvia stood up almost robotically, more preoccupied in looking at her than actually talking. 

  
She was shorter than her, but with a good stature. Her honey-colored hair was kept in a low ponytail and seemed to be wavy as well. Her eyes were more open and vivid than Sylvia's, the color reminding her of a lover long forgotten in her memories. She couldn't care less about him nowadays. But she still worried about the girl. _Her_ girl.

"Hello." The older decided to break the silence, swallowing a lump on her throat. "It's... nice to see you."

  
"...Me, too." They haven't been on it for five minutes and the girl was already regretting her pitiful attempt at the Ostanian language. "They told me you had died."

  
Sylvia knew about it because she was the one to advise her tutors about it. It was the best choice all those years ago, but she wasn't sure about it now.

  
"It was because of work." She tried to explain. "It's dangerous, there in the west. I couldn't guarantee I would be alive to go back to you one day."

"So why did you come now?" Even if she tried, th younger lady couldn't the hide the faint accusation in her tone. She just wanted an explanation. A true, clear and objective one that wouldn't leave her with pink colored scenarios in hope Sylvia would be more present in her life.

"...I missed you." It was her whispered answer, throwing away all her composed and calculated scripts she had for this moment. "I missed you every day, but did my best to push it in the back of my head so it wouldn't affect my job. If I failed it, it could be dangerous to you, too. I couldn't risk it. But in the end... The longing was such I couldn't help myself and called you."

  
Sylvia expected anything from her. She would understand if she despised her, if she screamed at her listing all the important moments of her childhood she missed, if she simply walked away and never looked at her face again. Damn it, she didn't even have the same name Sylvia had chosen for her twenty two years ago. She would understand it, from the bottom of her heart, because not even herself could forgive her for leaving the child behind to fight for the so-called peace in the continent.

  
Instead, the girl stepped forward and hugged her, even if a bit awkwardly. Sylvia didn't expect that. For all that she knows, the kid could have killed her right there and she wouldn't make notice of that. She was far too surprised to recall any of her training. Far too shocked, far too... _happy._

  
Her arms tentatively returned the hug and they stood there for an indefinite amount of time. No crumpled picture in her pocket could replace the feeling of embracing her daughter after all those years.

Sylvia would have to thank Twilight for convincing her to break the protocol.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This actually is part of my bad end au timeline with divorced-but-not-really Twiliyor, so you guys can think about Twilight convincing Handler to visit her daughter after he himself mended things with his family~~  
> Hope you liked it!~~


End file.
